La Roux

Of the many big female hopes touted for chart success this year, Elly Jackson is leading the pack. How so? Well, VV Brown has yet to break the top 40, Little Boots’ album barely bruised it and Florence And The Machine seems to be having engine trouble. Only Jackson – aka La Roux – has scored a major hit single with In For The Kill and her follow-up Bulletproof landed smack on top of the singles chart yesterday. Now her self-titled debut album has arrived, brimming with synths, machines and all manner of 80s paraphernalia…

A few months ago, press reports claimed that the ginger-quiffed La Roux was falling apart under the pressure of expectation and her live shows were said to be patchy. Jackson kept quiet, released her single and let her music do the talking. Let’s not beat around the bush: this is a record that sounds like it could have been produced nearly 30 years ago. Jackson herself looks like she hankers to be in A Flock Of Seagulls, and listening to La Roux, we were transported back to drinking gin, lime & wine in an 80s Sarfend nightclub, replete with electric blue eye shadow and the stench of Elnette hairspray. The question we have to ask is: we lived through this once before, do we really want to do it again?

La Roux’s frontwoman Elly Jackson readily admits that live performing isn’t something she’s 100% nailed as yet, so we turned up to her gig on Saturday night with one eyebrow cocked. By the end of the evening though, it was lowered and in relaxed mode. Sure, the spiky-haired one might be short on dance moves and a tad awkward in flow, but her vocals and commitment to nailing every note deserve nothing but applause…